ELIs and 3D Virtual World Tours

Have you tried using ELI activities along with one of the many 3D Virtual World Tours? Many pupils have little concept of, for example, the power of ice or river erosion.

You could try the ELI 'Mighty river in a small gutter' and use one of the 3D tours to accompany it. The photo is from the tour of the Victoria Falls in Africa. There are many other examples you could use:-
- ELI 'Laying down the principles' with the tour of the Grand Canyon, USA,
- ELI 'Grinding and gouging' with the tour of the Matterhorn in Switzerland,
- ELI 'Weathering - rocks breaking up and breaking down' with the tour of Bryce Canyon, USA,
- ELI 'Blow up your own volcano' (or any other of the ELI volcanic activities) with the tour of Grimsvoten volcanic crater in Iceland.
These are just a few of many activities covering a wide range of Earth science and geography ELIs, all stored on our website in pdf format and all free to download.

Age of the Earth? How do we know?

Our latest ELI has just been published - 'Working out the age of the Earth - moving backwards as time moved forwards'.  Ask pupils to link up the ‘headlines’ about calculating the age of the Earth, to show how ideas about the age of the Earth have changed over time from 1650 when Bishop Ussher gave a calculation of 6000 years to 1956 when radioactive uranium/lead dating of meteorites gave an age of 4.55 plus or minus 1.5% billion years. In recent years radiometric dating has given the most reliable figures. They all cluster around 4.6 billion years, more easily remembered as near 4,567 million years.
This activity is another ELI which gives a good example of 'How science works'. Others include the work of Charles Darwin, James Hutton, Mary Anning and Alfred Wegener. All of these can be found using 'Search activities' on the home page of our website.

London's fossils; an ancient world hidden in the city

As part of our series on building stones, a reader has suggested that this video could be used when looking at sedimentary rocks.
You can see the ELI activities on building stones and lots of other great ideas for teaching science and geography on our website.

What is that building stone?

Find out by using ELI's building stone resources. We have written one activity as a general resource and one focusing on the igneous rocks. Today we have published an ELI that gives details about the sedimentary rocks used as building stones. Metamorphic rocks as building stones will be published soon.
What is used in your area? Can you write a building stones activity for the area around your school? Share it with others on this blog or on Facebook.

ELI is now on Facebook

 ELI is now on Facebook. Please have a look at this very new page and write a comment or just 'like' it! We will improve it as, hopefully, we get better at using it. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.
Also, we have just published our latest map of the countries and towns/cities that ELI has reached in the world. You can view this in 'ELI in the world' on our website.

Make some working models of wells

Our new Earthlearningidea is 'Well, well, well!' In this activity, pupils are encouraged to make two working models of a well, one simple and the other more complex. For either model, they are asked to answer the following questions:-
• Is there is an underground lake in the model?
• Where is the water?
• What is needed to maintain the supply of water?
• Could the well be pumped dry?
• Are wells used to supply water in all countries or just some countries?
The activity is simple enough to be understood by children of all ages, and can be used in any lesson, e.g. in science or geography where water supply is being taught, or where renewable and non-renewable resources are featured.
This is one of many 'watery activities' stored on our website. For a complete list, refer to 'Teaching strategies'.

Riches in the river

'Riches in the river' is an ELI activity that investigates how valuable ores may become concentrated on river beds. After doing this ELI, pupils can explain how moving water can separate particles of different density; predict where best to look for gold and dense ores on a river bed and explain how density differences can be used to separate valuable ores from less dense waste in a commercial situation.
This is one of many hands-on activities which  is fun to set up and carry out and which will motivate and interest pupils while teaching them a lot more than just a bit of science! Click on our website for hundreds more innovative ideas.